Ian Newby Preserves Canadian D-Type Lore with Passion—and a Tribute

Today, every manufacturer offers a digitized experience that lets you see pictures and videos of the car you’re interested in, scroll through the long list of options, and even configure a virtual model to your desired specification. In the 1950s, you had to go to the source. Thus it was that Oxford Motors, part of the large Plimley Fourth Avenue group, decided to order one of each model of new Jaguars for the 1956 model year. Upon receiving them, the staff was somewhat bemused to discover that they’d ordered a Le Mans racing special.

It’s fun to think of this as a whoopsie from the sales manager, but in reality, you could hardly get better publicity than having a Jaguar D-Type in your showroom in 1956. D-Types had won several prestigious endurance races by this point, not least of them 1955’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first of what would become three in a row in the French race. The fact that it was absolutely stunning to look at probably also helped draw in the crowds.

Only slightly over seventy D-Types were built by Jaguar between 1954 and 1957, and they are multi-million dollar collector items today. The D-Type brought in by Oxford Motors, XKD-558, appears to be the only such example delivered new to British Columbia, and possibly even to Canada as a whole. For any young Jaguar fan, seeing it in person would have been electrifying.

Certainly, it was so for Ian Newby. Now a retired Canadian Armed Forces Major with a movie production company that has supplied everything from the heavy transports used in Deadpool to the uniforms for Saving Private Ryan, he was then just a young race fan, seeing the D-Type run at Abbotsford airport.

Oxford used its D-Type as a demonstrator, with “Plimley 4^th Ave.” painted on its flanks, red contrast against cream paint. Le Mans gave the D-Type most of its fame, but it should be noted that this car was the finless, short-bonnet variant, and it had plenty of potential for sports car racing of the day.

One thinks nothing of seeing a Lamborghini or Aston-Martin plying the streets of Vancouver today, but in the 1950s, the city was still at least fifty percent lumberjack. Some charming period photos of the D-Type show it parked alongside three Mercedes-Benz 300SLs, a V-12 Ferrari, and another open-topped Jaguar, all six parked in front of stacked timber—naturally.

But if forestry was still a booming business in BC nearly seven decades ago, there was still space between the pines for world-class racing. Early racing at airports just whetted the appetite for local sports car enthusiasts, and in 1957, the Sports Car Club of British Columbia broke ground on a 1.8-mile circuit located on the south slope of Eagle Ridge in Coquitlam.

In that same year, Jim Rattenbury of Vancouver negotiated a purchase of the Oxford Motors D-Type for a little over $6500. This was something of a bargain, but then again, the Jaguar had been hanging around for over a year at this point. With Rattenbury, it would go racing at last.

Over the years, Newby struck up a friendship with the Rattenburys, joking that he was possibly the annoying teenager always asking questions. As a result of this connection, and with D-Type’s second owners, he was given reams of documentation, including the original bill of sale and owner’s manual.

This last is a fascinating document, showing Rattenbury’s attention to detail in carefully setting up the D-Type for each race, meticulously charting each change. It reads like a pilot’s logbook. He was trained as a mechanical engineer and was a prolific builder of racing specials, all the way into his mid-eighties.

The thought of modifying a D-Type might make the purists recoil (just you wait, purists), but extracting maximum performance while adhering to the rulebook is just what you do with a race car. Rattenbury lengthened the wheelbase slightly, swapped in a De Dion rear axle and supercharged the inline-six.

Many well-known racers would come to Westwood over the years, from Villeneuve to McLaren. However, it was very much a grassroots track, and there were several tricky bits that could punt an uncautious or unlucky driver into those unyielding pines.

Rattenbury had some success, but more importantly, he managed to keep the D-Type on the tarmac. The car was then sold to Starr Calvert of Seattle, who was not so fortunate. He had the car repainted British Racing Green, but it was not a lucky green, as he had several accidents in his earliest races. The most significant was an off at Portland International Raceway in the summer of 1961, where a concrete foundation hidden in the grass caused significant damage to both car and driver.

Undeterred, Calvert set about a comprehensive rebuilding that will no doubt shock the Jaguar faithful in the crowd. He removed the inline six and swapped in a 427 Ford V-8 in NASCAR specification, replaced the wheels and tires with wide rims off a Chevrolet, cut the bodywork open to clear the twin exhausts, and fitted huge fender flares.

The performance was ferocious, but the modifications certainly didn’t make the D-Type more controllable. In 1964, coming down the long straight at Westwood, Calvert lost braking and the car went straight off the banking and into the trees. Incredibly, the driver survived. The Jaguar, not so much.

In the meantime, Newby had embarked on both his military career and entered into longtime Jaguar ownership, buying a 1951 Mark VII with a 3.4-liter inline-six and a manual transmission from an RCAF flight sergeant. While on station in the U.K. with NATO, he would regularly meet with both the Jaguar owners club and the D-Type owners club, and upon returning to Canada, he founded what is now the Jaguar/MG Club of Vancouver.

Newby also gathered together some remaining parts of the D-Type, including the clutch assembly, wheels, differential, steering wheel, and other miscellany. He has sheafs of documentation, including the racing logbooks and aforementioned owners manual, as well as the original VIN of the car.

Ian and his wife Doreen are both very active in the BC’s vintage British car community, and in fact, each recently received medals from the British Car Council of Canada—Ian for Jaguar, Doreen for MG. This year, they will be showing a U.S.-built replica D-Type, one that has its own racing provenance and has been fitted with various parts from the original car. It is not meant to be a Ship of Theseus recreation, but a tribute to the Rattenburys and Calverts, and their time spent racing. He’s painted the original driver’s names on the side of the car and placed new old stock Westwood stickers on the windscreen. The replica even has the original shift knob from the actual car.

This replica D-Type tribute will be displayed at this year’s All British Field Meet at Van Dusen Gardens, held Saturday, May 17th. It is, of course, now possible to download and look at all manner of pictures and videos of racing Jaguar D-Types. But now, as then, it’s really better if you see one in person.